1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications systems, and more particularly to a system and method for providing an improved service node with increased telecommunications capabilities.
2. Summary of the Related Art
To achieve the increasingly complex functions demanded by today's telecommunications users, there are an ever-increasing number of service applications which provide more and more sophisticated functions. To accommodate these powerful and persistent service applications, service nodes were developed as platforms on which these service applications could reside. An example of such a service node would include the service circuit node developed by AT&T, as a part of their Advanced Intelligent Network (A-I-Net.TM. or AIN) technology.
A service node typically accepts telephone traffic at its various ports and creates an instance of the requested service application upon receipt of each incoming call. Depending upon the particular service application involved, the service node uses its voice processing facilities to obtain information about the call routing, then dials the telephone number desired by the caller, and hairpins the incoming and outgoing calls together to connect the incoming user's call with his expected destination. The incoming call remains on the service node's switch fabric port during connection, as well as during the entirety of the call. Service node memory is also tied up in maintaining the instance of the particular service application associated with each call from reception of the incoming call until one of the phones returns to its on-hook status. When one of the parties goes back on-hook, the service node breaks down the service application instance and frees up the respective service node switch fabric ports.
An example of a service application which runs on a service node could be a single number reach-type application which allows a subscriber to provide a single telephone number by which he can be reached. This AIN service application allows a subscriber (sometimes also referred to as a "user" herein) to define a custom call-routing schedule and directory that enables the subscriber's calls to find him anywhere. The directory defines locations, such as "office" or "car", and associates each location to a directory number. The schedule identifies a subscriber's location based on time of day and day of week. Such a program enables a subscriber to distribute a single or "universal" phone number; when a call is placed to that number, the service application is responsible for managing the actions needed to find the subscriber based on his personalized directory and schedule and route calls to him. There are several companies that offer a single number reach-type product implemented on a service circuit node, such as AT&T's Personal Number, and Universal Number.TM. produced by Electronic Data Systems Corporation (assignee of the present invention).
Unfortunately, the service node has at least two limitations: low call capacity and no capability to communicate with an external TCP/IP-driven device. A service node's call capacity typically is approximately 200 concurrent calls. As demand for a particular service application increases, or traffic generally picks up, the service node's call capacity becomes a serious limitation. Also, as described above, since every instance of a service application remains for the entire duration of its associated call, more and more service node memory remains necessarily unavailable for additional service applications or their increasingly sophisticated functionality(ies) which demand increasing amounts of existing service node memory.